51 replies

Diabetes is not a curse (or a death sentence). You can eat almost anything that you want as long as you watch portions & carbs. I would suggest that you get nutritional counseling from a good Diabetes counselor. Try your local hospital. I've been seeing one ever since I was diagnosed & it really helps. Also, there's a lot of information on this site & a lot of good friends. And Welcome to Diabetic Connect.

Hi I was reading some of the posts on here and I thought I would tell you aa little abou me. I am a type 1 very brittle with parkinsons as well as some other problems. I have been a dibetic since 1978 and have no complacations so I must have been doing somethins right. Last year I had to give up living on my own so now live in a assisted living home (just a glorifide nursing home). My biggest problems are I no longer feel the highs or lows last week dropped to 19 on my meter and they called the ems to inject sugar into me. Oh how I hate those big needles. I can be at 300 before lunch eat my meal thn at 3 in the afternoon be at 30. But life goes on maybe some day they will find a cure for one of my problems and help alot of others while doing it. Hope you have a great thanksgiving.Bob

wow, it is so hard keeping the BS level sometimes,,,a never ending battle. That's great you have had no complications! Good job! 19 is so low,,,,glad you are ok! Hope you had a great thanksgiving! Thanks for writing to me.

Bob, are you using carb counting to determine your insulin dosages? I need 1 unit for every 6 carbs I eat. That is called a 1:6 carb ratio. Your ratio might be very different, like 1:10, or 1:15. I used to have many highs and lows, but carb counting stabilized my blood sugar a lot.

Thank you much! How old are your boys? I feel for them! They thought my 3 year old had it a couple weeks ago, and we had to stay overnight in childrens hosp., but turned out he was ok, thank God! WHat have been kind of bizarre if he did have it seeing he is adopted.

Hey Jenni, what is a water pill? I am new to the site and also pretty new to Type 1 Diabetes. I was diagnosed last May and I'm 26! I was 140lbs when the diagnosed me and I quickly rose to 180 when I started taking insulin, what a shocker. I take novolog 3-4 times a day and lantus at night. It's so hard to find other people with Type 1 to relate to, I am really glad this site is here to connect.

Ryan, I gained 57 pounds in the 1990s after switching from pork insulin to the modern day synthetic insulins. I was diagnosed with insulin resistance, like type 2 diabetics have, due to the excess weight. At that time I had to start taking a type 2 med along with my insulin. A type 1 with insulin resistance is called a double diabetic. I lost most of that weight and started using a pump. Now I am very healthy.

If you have gained 40 pounds and you have a lot of high blood sugar, you could possibly have insulin resistance too. You might want to ask your doctor about that. Many doctors do not know that a type 1 can have insulin resistance, but an endocrinologist would know.

Hi Ryan, It is a called hctz prescribed from my doctor. It helps with my BP pill. Get's rid of excess fluid. I used to gt swollen ankles in the summer, and it helped. Unfortunately insulin makes you gain weight…I hate that part. I take so much less now that I lost all that wei Did you keep the 40 pounds or lose some by now? You look fine in your pic, I wouldnt worry about it. Does anyone in your family have it? My dad, and brother has it. My brother got is when he was a teenager too, and is 30 now. He is very skinny, and never gained weight from it…lucky..He does live in NYC, so walks everywhere, that could be why..lol His a1c is only 5.5!!!!!!!

Hi Jenni:) I'm Emily and I have type 2, I'm currently on oral meds like Alan I take 2000 mg. of Metformin a day and I check my BS at least 4 to 6 times a day usually before and after each meal, I'm pretty new to this, I found out Oct. 24th of this yr. but since then I have been walking 6 six days a week and I cut out a few things, like real sugar, white bread, beef, whole milk, butter, brown sugar, cakes, cookies, you know the typical junk food and my biggest weekness fast foods. I try and eat only food I cook, mainly veggies, chicken turkey and fish with a little fruit, and wheat and fiber. My BS is between 80 and 160, sometimes it will spike to over 200 b/c I'm still in the learning phase. But once I notice I quickly remove the item from my diet. When I first was told I was diabetic I looked at it as a curse b/c I wasn't able to eat what I wanted and I had to really start reading the labels and counting carbs. This is my first Thanksgiving I'm not cooking for my family and it sucks but my health means more to my family then anything else so I'm ok with it. I think it's nice to be able to talk with others that have the same illness. Welcome!

Hi Emily! Thanks for filling me in about you! I found out when I was 13, I had diabetes. I lost 30 pounds in one month,always thirsty, etc… so my parents took me to doctor and my BS was over 500! I actually just lost about 65 pounds and feel great! I didnt eat the greatest for being diabetic, so decided if I wanted to live longer for my family, I better make a change. I started eating lean cuisines, eating only wheat bread, and no junk food, except baked lays once in a whille…and low fat popcorn. I do the elipitical, about 4-5 times a week, or walk. I also started jogging the track, but only a few times so far. I have doing this for about a year, so hope I stick with it for life. My BS usually are between 90-180. The lowest mine ever has been was 40 i think. I wake up in middle of night with low BS sometimes. Well, hope to talk soon!

Really nice to hear your story Jenni I commend you for adapting at an early age and even more better it's a nice way to communicate with others and hear there stories too. Sometimes I wish it would all go away but in other ways maybe having diabetes was a blessing b/c it made me wake up and know what I was eating everyday was not healthy and even worse what I was feeding it to my family everyday and it was just as bad for them as me. So I try to stay positive but I do have my rough days just as everyone who is battling diabetes does i guess once I get used to the changes it will be like everyday life…my first reading was 462 and I was alway thirsty too!

Greetings and welcome to our website. You're going to find many wonderful people with all types of diabetes and all types of personalities. I think of this place as more than a support group… it's a FAMILY!!! I am looking forward to hearing more from and about you.

Welcome!! It is always great to have people who have had such a life experience to share with the community. I have only been diabetic for almost 3 years, but having it from youth is a different perspective. So glad to have you here.

Thanks Gabby! Do you have type 2? Are you taking insulin? I can't even imagine my life without diabetes, it's just a way of life for me now. I just live life to the fullest, it is what it is and always will be :)

That is a great attitude to have and so many more of us need to follow that example. I am type 2 but not on insulin. I would prefer to be on insulin, but my doctor wants to try to get me off meds all together, so we are working on that first.